Books by Arturo Longoria

Thursday, June 18, 2015

NATURE'S GARDEN

NOTE: This post is for educational
purposes only. Learning the native
plants around you is a methodical process that must be approached carefully and
preferably via someone who is an expert or at least well familiar with the
plants. This holds true especially for
medicinal native plants since they are as likely to cause allergic reactions,
side effects, and in some cases may even be harmful to those with preexisting
medical conditions. Always, consult with
your doctor before you begin using any type of medicinal native plant either by
ingestion or topically.

There are two types of gardens: The garden you put in every
spring or early fall and then the garden growing naturally in the woods or
vacant lots around you. It’s just a
matter of learning what plants are edible or medicinal and then acquiring a
sufficient body of knowledge to know either how to eat those native plants or
use them for some medical purpose.

My introduction into using native plants for food began when
I was only a child. Nopalitos (Opuntia engelmannii) were a regular
household item especially at my grandmother’s house where she cooked them with picadillo or scrambled eggs or even just
by themselves. My grandfather and I
would make forays at the ranch looking for edibles and it was through him that
I first became familiar with pitaya
strawberrycactus (Echinocereus enneacanthus) and coma fruit and with other plants like the small elongated red fruit
of the pin cushion cactus (Mammillaria heyderi). My Papagrande
would notice a plant and then tell me whether it was edible or had some
sort of medicinal value. We’d always
speak in whispers and I’ve carried that practice into adulthood when in the
woods. The learning process began at about
the age of seven and by the time I reached Junior High School I had acquired
enough expertise to go looking for plants on my own. Even so, some of my fondest memories are of
walking through the quiet woods with my grandfather searching for plants to
collect to eat on the spot or that would be taken back to the brick cabin that
served as ranch headquarters, the place for family gatherings and sleepovers.

All these years later I still roam the woods examining the
foliage and making note of where all the edible and medicinal trees and shrubs
are located. I visit those spots often
to check on the various plants. Is the
fruit ready to eat? Is there some plant
nearby I can use for a tea or for insect repellent? Perhaps there is a plant about ready to
flower and the flowers themselves are edible.
I’ve learned to differentiate between the species of prickly pear growing
around me noting which ones produce the best nopalitos or the best tunas or
the best darts. Yes, you read correctly;
I said darts. I keep forgetting to show
all of you how to make nopal darts
and so sometime this week I’ll go out looking to see if I can find any prickly
pear still blooming. When I was a kid
we’d make darts from the bright yellow or red flowers and then spend an hour or
so having dart games on the nopal pads. It’s the kind of simple pleasure that ranch
kids enjoy and I assure you it is in many ways infinitely more productive than
the modern obsession with sitting for hours in one’s room playing computer
games. As we played darts we’d be
surrounded by nature with all its sounds and smells and the intense hues of
greens and yellows, reds, blues, pinks.
We’d stop to sniff the air as a group of javelina passed nearby or
perhaps if we heard a deer snort not far away.
It was never quiet but it was not noisy either. Noise is what people experience in cities and
on highways. Noise is some fellow
driving up alongside with the speakers in his auto rumbling and shaking the
very earth beneath you. I always think those
ignorant fools will be deaf before they reach the age of forty. Too
bad, so sad. But in nature the
sounds are soft and pleasant and comforting.

Nature’s garden is a mecca of teas. There is the tea from salvia (Croton incanus) and oregano (Lippia graveolens). There is the tea from colima (Zanthoxylum fagara) and from mejorana (Salvia ballotiflora). There
are, in fact, so many teas available that given a supply of water one will
never be without some pleasant beverage while woods roaming or camping. At my dad’s ranch in Mexico we’d drink a tea
made from ebony beans. The locals also
made a tea from mesquite beans and from huisache
(Acacia farnesiana) beans. We ate
the fruit from the brasil (Condalia
hookeri) and from lote bush (Ziziphus
obtusifolia). We munched down on granjeno (Celtis pallida) and chapote (Diospyros texana) berries. Here
at our place I am surrounded by duraznillo (Prunas texana) shrubs.
I’ve written about duraznillo (little
peach) and about many of the plants mentioned above. I play a game with the local birds every
spring to see who gets the small peaches that amass on the duraznillo shrubs. The birds
always win.

Nature’s garden provides all sort of tubers and stalks and
leaves and seeds. There is a plant
called mala mujer (Cnidoscolus texanus) that
is blooming and I look out my bedroom window and see scores of mala mujer in full bloom in my
“backyard.” But woe to the poor soul who
happens to bump into a mala mujer (Texas
Bull Nettle) wearing nothing but Bermuda shorts or perhaps who sees the
succulent white flowers and stoops to pick one.
Like its small cousin ortegia (Urtica
dioica) (stinging nettle) the hairs on the mala mujer (bad woman) inject a potent mixture of histamine, formic
acid and serotonin—except that in mala
mujer the inoculation is about ten times stronger. A lady wrote me recently saying she had mowed
her lawn using a weed eater and had decided to mow the mala mujer as if they were just another small shrub. Fortunately, she was wearing glasses but she
had on shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and when she mowed the bull-nettle it sprayed
all over her. Instantly, her skin was on
fire. The pain was horrific. Her neck, face, arms and legs became nothing
more than giant red welts that felt as if someone had poured acid on her
skin. Her email to me was written in
desperation. Dear Mr. Longoria what can I do?
I’m in terrible pain. I wrote
back and told her to make a paste of baking soda and to apply it directly to
the welts and irritated skin since the baking soda would help neutralize the acid. She said she’d taken a
Benadryl tablet but it had done little good.
I advised her to keep taking the Benadryl since it would counter the
histaminic effects of the nettle. Then I
asked her to please see a doctor if the pain did not subside. She wrote back saying she would take my
advice. She made the baking soda paste
and applied it to her body. I can only imagine
what she must have looked like covered in welts and red irritated skin. I imagine the pain was excruciating. But here’s a little secret…or perhaps a
secret that most people don’t know but that now you will know. The seeds of mala mujer are quite tasty.
They are large seeds and one simply gathers the seed pods (very
carefully!) and places them on a table then allows them to dry. When the pods ripen they burst open exposing
the seeds. You roast the seeds or can
even grind them up to make a coffee/tea drink.
So you see even the most vicious plants are edible. In fact, stinging nettle (ortegia) can be harvested, boiled (which destroys the toxins) and
then eaten. They are rich in vitamins
and taste somewhat like cooked spinach.
Another one of my favorites is called pepino del monte that grows wild all around this area.

Medicinal plants abound. I make a very effective insect repellent from
a species of lippia known as Lippia alba. A species of croton (Croton incanus) also produces an effective insect repellent.
This species called salvia is
used as a medicinal tea to treat bronchitis.
One late summer when the ragweed got me bad I drank salvia tea on a daily basis to help with the congestion. The inner bark of the chaparro prieto (Acacia rigidula) was used to treat diabetes and
arthritis. The “juice” from the leather
stem or Sangre de drago (Jatropha dioica)
was used to heal mouth sores and tooth aches. Some claim it was also used to treat kidney
disease. A toxic concoction made from pita (Yucca treculeana) leaves was used
to induce abortions. Alcoholic “medicines” were made from prickly
pear, mesquite beans, and agave and from various wild berries. The list of medicinal plants is extensive—far
too long for a blog post. In my novella,
The Trail, I incorporate many of the
traditions of South Texas especially those related to native plants. But native plants are not the only “wild”
foods available. In northeastern Mexico
the nopal rat is considered a
delicacy. A scene in The Trail revolves around the
consumption of nopal rats. By the way, I’ve had a number of requests to
bring out The Trail in a paperback
edition. I have heard you and have asked
to have inexpensive paperback editions printed for my blog readers. Those should be available soon.

The root from the guayacan (Guaiacum angustifolium) makes
an excellent soap as does the root from the agave. Agave stalks, by the way, are edible and
quite tasty and the root bulb is sometimes cooked in a pit overnight. Excellent dyes can be made from colima, chapote, coma (Sideroxylon
celastrinum), brasil, tuna and several flowers. Sealants can be concocted from nopal.
Glue is made from mesquite sap
(Prosopis glandulosa).

This blog is about Bushcraft (Woods
Craft) and preserving nature, and in another world most of what laymen call Woods Craft is known as
the field of ethnobotany. Most people
aren’t really all that interested in taking Woods Craft to the highest
levels. I understand that and know that
for many the field of Bushcraft is mostly about talking about knives and making
bow-drills and camp shelters. Bushcraft
can be practiced in many ways. The
majority of aficionados do not aspire beyond the most rudimentary skills. But for those seeking a “Ph.D”. in bushcraft then a thorough knowledge of nature’s garden is
essential.

That's the best name I've heard. I don't know if you've ever been stung by mala mujer but it will take at least seven days before the pain and intense itching goes away. I've known of a couple of guys who had to be treated in the emergency room after having violent reactions to the plant.

I enjoyed this blog post to the fullest extent possible. It makes me want to get back to Webb county where I spent three years in the late seventies. It also makes me realize that I need to make more use of native plants here in southern New Mexico.

Thanks, Leroy. You'll notice from the photos that everything is ultra-green here. We've had lots of rain; in fact, it just rained again about an hour ago. Webb County, as you know, is close by and they've had lots of rain too.